Last Week Tonight with John Oliverwill be entering its fourth season soon, and in a TV landscape filled to the brim with political pundits, late night shows, and personality-driven commentary series (fromThe Daily ShowtoSamantha Bee), this show has managed to succeed in finding its own niche. Though I was never a fan of Oliver’s stand-up, he has really found a format that works for him with Last Week Tonight, being (asKumail Nanjianisays in this clip) an “acquired taste” of “a British man yelling about how the world is going to end.”
The teaser makes fun of the fact thatLast Week Tonightis definitely not the biggest, most groundbreaking, or most anticipated show on HBO (and the premium network does a bit of self-congratulation on that point), but through its viral clips and Oliver’s sincerely impassioned pleas to put to rights a world that seems to be spinning out of control, it has become an essential voice.
Check out the promo below:
While theGame of Thronesreference is a little obvious and over-used, I loved theSilicon Valleyjoke with Kumail (his timing is always perfect), plus the surprise cameo fromLarry Davidtouting the return ofCurb Your Enthusiasm.
Of course, with as critical as Oliver has been in the past regardingDonald Trump(remember theDrumpf video?), he will surely have no lack of fodder for the new season of his show. But Oliver doesn’t just focus on politics, and has done some amazing work likeforgiving $15 million in medical debt, which was an exercise in showing how unbelievably predatory the debt collection business is (not to mention medical expenses themselves). Oliver has said in the past that HBO gives him complete freedom when it comes to criticizing corporations – something that only a premium network could afford to do. But let’s be thankful it does, since it’s a voice in the wilderness at this point.
Last Week Tonight’s fourth season will premiere Sunday, February 12th on HBO.
